Eucalyptus leucoxylon, commonly known as the Yellow Gum, (South Australian) Blue Gum or White Ironbark, is a small to medium-sized tree with rough bark on the lower 1-2 metres of the trunk, above this, the bark becomes smooth with a white, yellow or bluish-grey surface. Adult leaves are stalked, lanceolate to broad-lanceolate, to 13 x 2.5 cm, concolorous, dull, green. Flowers in white, pink or red appear during winter. These attract native birds, which feed on them.
E. leucoxylon is widely distributed on plains and nearby mountain ranges or coastal South Australia, where it is known as the Blue Gum and extends into the western half of Victoria where it is known as the Yellow gum.The species has been divided into numerous varieties and subspecies. A spectacular red-flowered form of uncertain provenance Eucalyptus leucoxylon ‘Rosea’ is widely planted as an ornamental plant, it flowers profusely in winter. A threatened subspecies known as the Bellarine Yellow Gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon subsp. bellarinensis) is endemic to the Bellarine Peninsula at the south-eastern end of the species' range. The leaves are distilled for the production of cineole based eucalyptus oil.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
Docklands (also known as Melbourne Docklands to differentiate it from London Docklands) is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km west of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Melbourne. At the 2011 Census, Docklands had a population of 5,791.
Docklands occupies an area adjacent to the Melbourne CBD. It is bounded by Spencer Street, Wurundjeri Way and the Charles Grimes Bridge to the east, CityLink to the west and Lorimer Street across the Yarra to the south and is a primarily waterfront area centred on the banks of the Yarra River.
Contemporary Docklands is the product of an ongoing urban renewal project to extend the area of the Melbourne CBD (excluding Southbank and St Kilda Road) by over a third when completed around 2015. It is now home to several of Melbourne's modern landmarks, including Etihad Stadium, Southern Cross Station and the Melbourne Star Ferris wheel.
This post is part of the Wednesday Waters meme,
and also part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
We visited the Heide Museum of Modern Art recently (most often simply referred to as “Heide”). This is only one of Melbourne’s public contemporary art museums and is located in Bulleen, east of Melbourne, only a few minutes drive from our house. It was established as a museum in 1981, and is made up of a number of detached buildings, with surrounding gardens and parklands, which go right up to the Yarra River flats.
As well as being a wonderful museum, the site is of historical importance and the whole complex is used as gallery space to exhibit works in various media by contemporary Australian artists. Heide occupies the site of a former dairy farm that was purchased by the prominent Melbourne art collectors John and Sunday Reed in 1934 and became home to a collective known as the Heide Circle, which included many of Australia’s best-known modernist painters, such as: Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan, Laurence Hope Joy Hester and others, who lived and worked in the former farm house (Heide I).
Between 1964 and 1967, a new house was built (Heide II), and this is considered to be one of the finest examples of modernist architecture in Victoria, and was designed by acclaimed architects McGlashan and Everist. In 1981, the museum was established on the site, incorporating the existing buildings and surrounding gardens & parklands as exhibition and gallery spaces. The main gallery building (Heide III) was constructed in 1993 and the museum continued to broaden its collection of works to include all forms of contemporary Australian art, including some by contemporary indigenous artists.
The museum underwent major refurbishment in 2005-2006. Part of this renewal was the establishment of several sculptural and installation art pieces, landscaping and redesign of the gardens, construction of a new education centre and gallery space, extension of the Heide III building and various other works. In 2009 after 19 months of redevelopment, the cafe reopened in November as Café Vue at Heide.
The pictures below show the installation piece on the lawns to the north of the museum, entitled “Cows”, by Jeff Thomson, 1981. The cows are made of corrugated iron, which is integral part of outback Australia (and not only!), being used as a construction material, particularly of house and shed roofs. The rural connections of the material are extended by the subject matter, giving a particularly Australian flavour to the bucolic landscape installation. The piece is quite striking, especially when first seen. There are now many imitations of this piece, with all sorts of animals being up for sale in many a local garden centre so everyone can have a corrugated iron pet in their back yard!
As well as visiting the museum we always visit the wonderful kitchen garden, which was originally a ‘working garden’ supplying vegetables, herbs and fruit for meals prepared by Sunday Reed, an innovative cook. The garden is fully enclosed to protect it from rambling animals as well as the effects of extreme weather. Ravaged by floods, even during recent years, Heide’s gardeners have maintained the historical plantings in the garden as well as returning the lower section to rotating crops of vegetables, which are used to prepare meals in the Café Vue at Heide.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
Looking through my photo archives the other day, I came across a few photos from 2003 that I had taken in Southbank. They were of a large, striking mural situated in a little cul-de-sac of the shopping centre of Southgate. I had always liked this and that's why I had photographed it, of course. Since then I remember having tried to find this mural again, but it has disappeared... I have no idea who the artist was or whether it has been overpainted or hopefully moved. If you know anything about this mural or its creator, please leave a comment.
This post is part of the Monday Murals meme,
and also part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.
The Werribee River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment that is located on the plain West of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The headwaters of a tributary, the Lerderderg River, are north of Ballan near Daylesford and it flows across the basalt plain, through the suburb of Werribee to enter Port Phillip. A linear park follows the Werribee River along much of its course. In total the Werribee River completes a journey of approximately 110 kilometres.
The river flows through the Werribee Gorge State Park before being utilised for irrigation of market gardens at Bacchus Marsh, then through Werribee where it is crossed by the Maltby By-pass. It then flows through the Werribee Open Range Zoo in Werribee Park, and finally the small coastal settlement of Werribee South before entering Port Phillip. The Western Treatment Plant, a sewage treatment site, is located near the mouth of the river, and supplies irrigation needs to the zoo. The Werribee River Trail winds beside the Werribee River from Davis Creek in Tarneit to the Princes Highway in Werribee.
These photos of the River are taken in Werribee, close to the Presidents Park.
This post is part of the Friday Greens meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.
One of the pleasures of living in Melbourne is walking by the Yarra River early in the morning and watching the su rise over the quietly flowing waters...
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme.
Duranta erecta is a species of flowering shrub in the verbena family Verbenaceae, native from Mexico to South America and the Caribbean. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in tropical and subtropical gardens throughout the world, and has become naturalised in many places. It is considered an invasive species in Australia, China, South Africa and on several Pacific Islands. Common names include golden dewdrop, pigeon berry, and skyflower. In Mexico, the native Nahuatl name for the plant is xcambocoché. In Tonga it is known as mavaetangi (tears of departure).
Duranta erecta is a sprawling shrub or (infrequently) a small tree. It can grow to 6 m tall and can spread to an equal width. Mature specimens possess axillary thorns, which are often absent on younger specimens. The leaves are light green, elliptic to ovate, opposite, and grow up to 7.5 cm long and 3.5 cm broad, with a 1.5 cm petiole. The flowers are light-blue or lavender, produced in tight clusters located on terminal and axillary stems, blooming almost all year long. The fruit is a small globose yellow or orange berry, up to 11 mm in diameter and containing several seeds. The leaves and berries of the plant are toxic, and are confirmed to have killed children, dogs and cats. However, songbirds eat the fruit without ill effects.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
This is our local train station at Fairfield. Fairfield railway station is located on the Hurstbridge line in Victoria, Australia, and serves the north-eastern Melbourne suburb of Fairfield. The station was called "Fairfield Park" when it opened on 8 May 1888, and was renamed "Fairfield" on 14 November 1943.
From 1891 to 1893, Fairfield was the junction station for the northern end of the former Outer Circle railway line, and was later the junction of the APM Siding, which operated from 1919 to the 1990s, and served the Australian Paper Manufacturers paper mill. Boom barriers replaced interlocked gates at the Station Street level crossing in 1969. Fairfield Industrial Dog Object (FIDO), a 6-metre-tall wooden sculpture of a dog, is located adjacent to the level crossing, at the eastern end of Platform 2.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
Although Fairfield is a predominantly residential inner city suburb, it does have a small north-eastern pocket, which remains a light industrial area. This is a vestige of the suburb's initial blue-collar roots, now having become thoroughly gentrified on the main. This photo is from this light industrial area, after hours, hence the deserted look.
This post is part of the Weekly Top Shot meme,
and also part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.
